Alcatel One Touch Fire Review

Introduction

It's been a while since chatter of a Firefox OS was nothing more than a faint whisper, so we'll be checking up with the Mozilla-developed platform's progress as it performs on the Alcatel One Touch Fire with a level of excitement. Originally known as Boot to Gecko (B2G), Firefox OS has definitely been going on for a while now, though an essential question remains: is the OS worth investing into?

In the box:

• Wall charger
• USB Cable
• Earphones with a microphone
• User manual

Design

As most other low-cost smartphones out there, the Alcatel One Touch Fire is just a slab of glossy plastic. We see nothing impressive or innovative about its design, but we can't call it bad either. The handset itself, despite being a bit chubby, is light, comfortable to hold, and small enough to fit in most pockets. It can be used easily with a single hand thanks to its petite proportions. The overall feel you get when interacting in any way with the One Touch Fire, however, is decidedly low end – the plastic feels even cheaper than usual.

Underneath the phone's touchscreen we have a single capacitive button that takes the user back to the home screen when tapped. The power and volume buttons, located on the top-left and left sides of the handset respectively, are well exposed and have a nice travel to them.

Display

The 3.5-inch TFT screen on the Alcatel One Touch Fire is barely passable, though this is somewhat justified by the phone's budget price point. While we're far from simply dismissing a display simply because of its compact proportions, there's a point to be made about the annoying persistence of 320x480 pixel panels. Viewing angles are average at best and outdoor visibility is problematic. As is the case with many budget phones, the display is one of the largest sacrifices you'll have to make when buying into a device like the One Touch Fire.